-Alabama Pete wrote: > In response to a previous post regarding the retrofit of a Porsche 3.2L > engine in a Vanagon, I have a few questions... > > The Porsche is an air cooled engine. Vanagon's are water cooled. Why > would you take a water cooled engine and replace it with an air cooled > Porsche engine, other than for the obvious gain in horsepower? Wouldn't > you lose the benefits of heating the van in the winter? Plus, parts > for the Porsche engine are outrageously priced compared to that of the > VW engines... Just looking for some answers and other > opinions/viewpoints... SOME Vanagons are watercooled. MY Vanagon (1981) was born aircooled, and is still aircooled, but now it has 180 reliable German horsepower, and I believe that the conversion (1978 Porsche 911SC engine), while not inexpensive, is the easiest one for a hobbyist to achieve. Porsche engines are coming down in price, to where you can get a used one with lots of miles left on it for $3000 or less if you shop carefully. Pete's point is a good one, tho: if YOUR Vanagon was born watercooled, it introduces an extra complexity to figure out how to get heat and defrost from the Porsche engine. B. -- William R. Kennedy, University Webmaster kennedy@fdu.edu 201.692.7275 201.692.7273fax http://www.fdu.edu Fairleigh Dickinson U., Teaneck, NJ 07666 |
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